GLOSSARY
diplomatic resident                                                      permanent adviser on diplomatic careers
broad                                                                          wide
to advocate                                                                 to promote(an idea)
budget                                                                         mount of money allocated to a task
constituency                                                                the people you represent or look after, group of potential voters
crunch                                                                         serious review and reduction of budget
in tune with                                                                  to have a feeling/understanding for
mindset                                                                       way or manner of thinking
predictable                                                                   what you would normally expect
to show up                                                                    to arrive
snapshot                                                                      quick evaluation of the situation, photograph
disciplines                                                                     facets, aspects
arrears                                                                          money owing
host (country)                                                               country where the diplomats are working
far flung                                                                        distant
fair                                                                                right and just
legal jam                                                                       difficult situation relating to the law
hat (that we are wearing)                                              role that we are playing
think-tank                                                                      group for talking and solving problems
to be stationed                                                              to be sent to work
folks (U.S.)                                                                    people
nascent                                                                         just born
indictment                                                                    accusation
evil                                                                               morally bad, wicked
plot                                                                                plan
to overthrow                                                                  to destroy, to take over
range                                                                            varying collection
portrayal                                                                        interpretations
gracious                                                                         courteous, charming

COMPREHENSION EXERCISE

1. Which of the following does he mention as necessary to be a diplomat?
language aptitude                                                     medical knowledge
specialist background                                               general background
knowledge of mathematics                                         managerial skills
sporting ability                                                            hard-working
flexible                                                                        strong interpersonal skills

2. What is the main reason for the diplomatic service having budget problems?

3. Douglas’s speciality is related to the Balkans. What is the significance of the following periods of time in connection with this speciality?
10 years                                                      3 years
1 year                                                          2 years

4. Why was he working in Washington?

5. What are the advantages of spending a lot of time in a specific region?

6. He outlines 5 disciplines that he considers part of diplomatic practice. What are they?

7. The most satisfying thing he has ever done was in Sofia, helping to establish an independent think-tank.
a) Who was involved?
b) When did he do this?
c) Where was he stationed at the time?
d) What did they convince people of?
e) What were the results?

8. Does he agree with the image given by the consular sector in books and films?

9. What adjectives does he use to describe consul work in his summing up?

COMPREHENSION EXERCISE ANSWERS:
1. language aptitude                   general background
managerial skills                         strong inter-personal skills

2.The diplomatic service lacks a constituent group, or lobby, to argue for betterfunding.

3. He spent 10 out of the last 11 years in the BalkansHe served in Albania and Bulgaria, each time for 3 years.

He spent a year in Washington learning both Albanian and Bulgarian.

He spent 2 years working in the Washington office responsible for the Daytonpeace plan.

4. He was working on the Dayton peace plan.

5. You become a little more in tune with the culture and a little more appreciativeof the ways the locals think.

6. a) Reporting and analysis.

b) Assistance to, and serving as an intermediary for your citizens.

c) Public diplomacy (i.e. getting “our” message across to the public in the hostcountry, advocating the US’s position.)d) The commercial aspect, advocating the fair treatment of US businessmen.

e) Administering the diplomatic mission.

7 a) A local group of sociologists and historians.

b) Just after the fall of the wall.

c) The Sofia embassy.

d) That it would help democracy.

e) It has been very successful.

8. It depends on which book or film, but essentially “there’s a little truth in all ofthem.”

9. human, fun

LESSON PLAN:
 

1. Students define a consul. Compare their definition with the following:

(from the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary)“An agent commissioned by a sovereign state to reside in a foreign town or port,to protect the interests of its subjects there, and to watch over its commercialrights and privileges.”

What qualities do they think a consul would need to have?

2. Talk about consular work. What do students imagine it involves.

Have they ever used a consulate either in their own country or while abroad?

Why might they? (e.g. to replace a stolen passport)Do they think consular work is important?

Why/why not?

3. Glossary. Go through the vocabulary, checking meaning and pronunciation.

4. Go through the questions, predicting answers where possible.

5. Listen, check answers (see 6 below for more detailed work of question 8), repeatand pause at appropriate spots.

6. Repeat listening from “Our particular work ...” to “... depending on the hat we arewearing on a given occasion.”

Students try to fill in the gaps: This will give them a detailed answer to Q.8.

Our particular work, I mean we have many aspects to it; there are essentially 4or 5 disciplines that you’ll find practised in any diplomatic installation, andmaking personal contact has to do what people, I guess, would consider thetraditional diplomatic function of ________________ and ________________.

As I say that’s one of perhaps 4 or 5 disciplines that you’d normally find.

There’s that, there’s the purely consular aspect of ________________ to________________ and ________________ as necessary between yourcitizens and those of the host country, there’s a public diplomacy element thatis practised all over the world. That’s essentially ________________ to thepublic in the host country, ________________, explaining its position,________________ of local authorities and even local citizens: Why did webomb Iraq a year ago? What do we care about Kosovo and why? Why do wehave arrears owed in the United Nations? What are our positions on importantworld issues? And advocating these issues and explaining them. There’s a________________ of our work, consuls have been around since Roman times,they were the emperor’s representatives in the far flung regions of the empire.

I would add that they probably had a heck of a lot more power than we dotoday in that respect, but they were originally established largely forcommercial purposes, to ________________ and ________________ betweenthe empire, the empirical centre, and the more far flung elements areas of thatempire. We serve the same.. not the same but a similar purpose today, in thatwe continue to advocate for ________________, for ________________ , forfair treatment for our businessmen who are here, to ensure that they are not________________, merely because they are foreigners, in the same kind ofway we would advocate for a US citizen that got in, some kind of legal jamhere, try to ensure that he’s not been dealt with differently. And then finally,the fifth is the obvious one, to a great extent, we have to take care ofour________________, we have to________________, the personnel thatwork here ,there are about 25 people that work in this particular establishment and that takes some administrative work so, we would do one of these 5 thingsdepending on the hat we are wearing on a given occasion.

7. How does what Douglas Smith says about consul qualities/consularwork/diplomatic practice compare with what the students thought?

8. What would interest students about being a consul?

What would they least like?

Why?

What country would they most like to be sent to as a consul?

Why?

9. Being a consul involves meeting a lot of new people and probably making a lot of“small talk”, i.e. polite conversation about not much of substance. Students worktogether and think of 10 questions they could ask someone they’ve never metbefore.

10. They then roleplay the conversations. Firstly, the person responding to thequestions is friendly and gives full answers and asks questions back. Then repeatthe conversations and the person responding is unfriendly and gives shortanswers. Record the conversations. Re-play them and compare them.

11. What are some of the big international issues in which the U.S. is involved at themoment? Students (in pairs) roleplay a conversation between a local governmentfigure and the U.S. consul in the relevant country where the U.S. consul isexplaining his/her country’s position. The journalist can be as awkward as he/shelikes!

Again, record this, and correct it after.

Dialogue

eV How did you get into the Diplomatic Service? How did you choose consularactivities as a career?

Doug Well I’d always been interested in that. There happened to be, what we called,a diplomat in resident at the university where I attended in Texas, and he and Italked, when I was, I guess, a junior or sophomore, in under-graduate school.

And I’d always considered it as an option because I’m interested ininternational affairs. I studied political science.

eV What sort of skills are necessary to be a diplomat?

Doug Well obviously since, in our system you could do any number of things fromthe starting point, in other words you rarely come in to our service with apredetermined specialty or course-of-action, we like to hire, what we refer toas generalists, so we could have a very, very broad background. My own, as Imentioned, was international affairs, political science, and law. We havepeople from all walks of life in our service, from medical doctors to PhDs invery specific subjects, physics, chemistry even, literature, generally what weare looking for is a person who is broadly backgrounded, who can representAmerica as the mixture of cultures and disciplines that it is. People who have alanguage aptitude or already know some languages, and people who are goodmanagers and people with good interpersonal relationships because I guess atthe bottom of it all, a good diplomat must be someone who can, not only getalong with people but represent and advocate particular positions, and thattakes not only an intellectual capability, it also takes strong inter-personalskills.

eV Is the service changing at all?

Doug It’s changed considerably, it’s been changed by external factors, and I thinksome internal factors have also forced some changes in it, but we’ve had somesignificant budget difficulties over the 20 years that I’ve served. One of the realproblems for the U.S. Foreign Service is that it has no real domesticconstituency, there’s nobody out there in America that really stands up andfights for the needs of the Foreign Service in the budget crunches. We haven’tdone a terribly good job of defending our own interests, and in our systemwhere decisions are made many times as the result of pressure brought byconstituent groups or particular lobbies, or at least influenced by these factors,it’s a, it’s difficult to get the resources that you need to conduct diplomacy.

And we’ve suffered from that.

eV Now you say that when you started in the service, you weren’t a specialist.

Have you developed a speciality?

Doug In a manner of speaking, I mean I’ve spent the last 10 out of 11 years in theBalkans. I served in Bulgaria. I served in Albania, each time for 3 years. I spent ayear in Washington previous to those 2 tours learning those languages. I thenspent 2 years working in Washington, in the office that was responsible forimplementing the Dayton peace plan for Bosnia, so... I have a total of about 10years working on Balkan issues and I suppose that that’s become my specialtyas a result of that. When you spend that much time in a region, it’s not only theaspect of what’s going on there right now, but you also become a little more intune with the culture of the region, a little more appreciative an understanding of the way they think, the way they do things, and while I wouldn’t want tomake generalisations and certainly all the countries in the Balkans areindividual in their own respects, there is a kind of a Balkan mindset, a kind ofa ... a similarity of approach... a more or less predictable pattern of behaviourin some instances, commonalities among these countries that when takentogether and when they result, when a person spends a significant amount oftime in a region like that, I think you come to understand the thoughtprocesses (sic) and the logic of a particular people, or type of people a littlebetter than someone who just kind of shows up from the outside to take asnapshot and go back out. Our particular work, I mean we have many aspectsto it; there are essentially 4 or 5 disciplines that you’ll find practiced in anydiplomatic installation of course, and making personal contact has to do whatpeople, I guess, would consider the traditional diplomatic function of reportingand analysis. As I say, that’s one of perhaps 4 or 5 disciplines that you’dnormally find. There’s that, there’s the purely consular aspect of providingassistance to your citizens and serving as an intermediary as necessarybetween your citizens and those of the host country. There’s a publicdiplomacy element that is practised all over the world. That’s essentiallygetting our message out to the public in the host country, advocating the U.S.’sposition, explaining its position, answering legitimate questions of localauthorities and even local citizens: Why did we bomb Iraq a year ago? What dowe care about Kosovo and why? Why do we have arrears owed in the UnitedNations? What are our positions on important world issues? And advocatingthese issues and explaining them. There’s a commercial aspect of our work,consuls have been around since Roman times, they were the emperor’srepresentatives in the far flung regions of the empire. I would add that theyprobably had a heck of a lot more power than we do today in that respect, butthey were originally established largely for commercial purposes, to promotetrade and resolve trade disputes between the empire, the empirical centre,and the more far flung elements areas of that empire. We serve the same.. notthe same but a similar purpose today, in that we continue to advocate for USexports, for investment in the United States, for fair treatment for ourbusinessmen who are here, to ensure that they are not discriminated againstmerely because they are foreigners, in the same kind of way we wouldadvocate for a US citizen that got in some kind of legal jam here, try to ensurethat he’s not been dealt with differently, that he enjoys the same rights andprivileges. And then finally, the fifth is the obvious one. We have to take care ofour own existence here, we have to administer the facility, the personnel thatwork here, and that takes some administrative work so, we would do one ofthese 5 things depending on the hat we are wearing on a given occasion.

I think one of the most satisfying things I’ve done certainly was to, toencourage a group of sociologists and historians in Sofia, to found what wasone of, and perhaps the first independent, think-tanks in Eastern Europe afterthe fall of the wall. I was stationed at our embassy there, and together with thefellow who was in charge of U.S. information agency at the embassy, we wereable to convince these folks that this was the kind of thing that would helptheir nascent democracy, this was the kind of thing that they could dothemselves, we were able to find a little money to help them get started and they did an amazing job. It’s been a very successful enterprise and I think itreally was a contribution to their society and to their country and I’m verypleased with that.

eV I guess one question I’ve got to ask: consular activities have given birth tohundreds and hundreds of books and films. How do you feel about that sort ofimage that the consular sector sometimes has?

Doug Well, of the ones I’ve seen or read... you have the full range. You haveeverything from Costa Gavras’ indictment of the non-responsive, unhelpful andeven if you will, evil embassy employees portrayed in his movie, you have thesimilar approach in the film I think it was Istanbul Express1 perhaps, set inTurkey, you have Graham Greene’s “Our Man in Havana”, which is a funnytake, you have the wonderful “Under the Volcano” book. So I guess it dependson which one you’re talking about. You have the movie, I’ve forgotten thename of it, I don’t know if it’s “Seven Days in May” or not, where the Consulwho finds the hand-written evidence of the plot to overthrow the Presidency,turning out to be the hero, so you have a whole range of portrayals. I supposethere’s a little of truth in all of them? It’s fun. You have some great stories fromconsul work, we all do and... it’s a very human experience. People can be veryabusive, people can be extremely gracious, and I’m sure we all have a little bitof each extreme in us and... you see the whole range.

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